The history of Colby College, Part 6

Author: Colby College
Publication date: 1963
Publisher: Waterville, Colby College Press
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Waterville > The history of Colby College > Part 6

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

While Colby graduates have long been proud of the provisions of its Maine charter of 1820 (not the original charter of 1813), opening the Institution to students of all denominations, it has not been so well understood that this liberal provision was the intent from the beginning, or at least from the time when Jeremiah Chaplin first came upon the scene. Of course the Trustees were eager to propagate their Baptist faith; of course they wanted to have their new insti- tution supply the Baptist churches with trained ministers; but they knew very well that a successful institution must have a wider basis of appeal. Furthermore, they had reason to fear that the state might deny aid to institutions that restricted

HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

attendance to a single sect. Finally, those early Baptists were by no means all of them the narrow denominationalists that they have been frequently pictured. Among them were men of broad vision, who sincerely wanted the new institution at Waterville to give instruction to young men of all varieties of religious faith.

Whatever the reason for this liberal decision, the pamphlet of 1819, issued a year before the Maine charter, contained these words:

This seminary, though under the direction principally of one denomina- tion, is nevertheless open to persons of every religious sect. From the literary department no one will be debarred who maintains a decent moral character. Nor will anyone be debarred from the theological de- partment, to whatever denomination of Christians he may be attached, who is able to exhibit satisfactory evidence of his piety and of his pos- sessing gifts adapted to the gospel ministry.

Of course the purpose of the pamphlet was to appeal for both students and funds. It pointed out that two buildings were soon to be erected, "one for the accommodation of students, the other for instructors." To meet the expense of erecting those buildings, the Trustees planned to sell a part of the Argyle town- ship and a part of their Waterville land. Concerning local subscriptions, they said, "The subscriptions obtained in Waterville and vicinity amount to about $3000. Of this sum almost $1800 has been expended on the lot. The remain- ing $1200 is still due to the Trustees." The pamphlet then emphasized the Trus- tees' conviction that money in sight from land sales and subscriptions would not be enough to complete the two buildings, to say nothing of supplying the needs for a library and philosophical apparatus, as well as paying the salary of a second professor. "In these circumstances, the Trustees feel it incumbent on them to make application for aid to the pious and charitable of every religious persuasion."

The pamphlet closed with some interesting mathematical computations.

The District of Maine is supposed to contain 240,000 souls. Now, ad- mitting that of the whole population a sixth part only are able to give anything, and that of these one half are already pledged for the support of other seminaries, still 20,000 would remain to patronize the one es- tablished at Waterville. And should each of them give but 50 cents, the sum of $10,000 would be obtained. This, with what the Trustees have reason to expect from tuition and the sale of lands in their pos- session, would probably be sufficient for two years to come. But should the 20,000 individuals contribute 50 cents annually, the Trustees would scarcely stand in need of donations from the opulent or aid from the legislature. Ten thousand dollars obtained annually would, with the blessing of God, soon raise this seminary to a respectable rank among the literary and theological institutions of New England.

In spite of their eagerness to obtain support from outside their own de- nomination, the Trustees well knew that their best hope of funds lay in continued appeal to the Baptist churches. Therefore, a few months after publication of the pamphlet to which we have just referred at some length, there was circulated a printed folder addressed "To the Churches and Congregations of the Baptist denomination in the District of Maine."9 After reciting the same facts outlined in the public appeal, and after emphasizing that not only God, but also state legis- latures, help those who help themselves, the circular emphasized the Baptist stake in the Institution.

A MODEST START

To whom, brethren and friends, shall we look in this emergency if not to you? You are, on several accounts, particularly interested in the prosperity of our Institution. More than two thirds of the Trustees are members of Baptist churches. It will be the means of increasing the number of able and faithful ministers among us.

Foreseeing the lament that Baptists were a poor people and could not raise any substantial amount of money, the circular stated:

The people of our denomination are very numerous. We have recently ascertained that there are in this District about 10,000 persons who be- long to Baptist churches. There are probably double that number who regularly attend Baptist worship, though not members. Let us sup- pose that these 30,000 should contribute only twenty cents apiece; the aggregate would be $6000. Even though it should be impossible to persuade every one of them to give 20 cents, certainly half of our Bap- tists in Maine are both able and willing to give the trifling sum of 40 cents.

By inference the circular referred to the long held belief of a conservative group among the Baptists that learning was actually detrimental to piety. To them, not only was a little learning a dangerous thing, but any learning at all, beyond ability to read the Bible, was suspect. The circular said,

A large proportion of the students are pious young men who, from love of God and compassion for perishing sinners, have abandoned secular pursuits and would devote themselves to the arduous work of preaching the gospel. Do you not wish to assist them in their pursuit of knowl- edge? Are you afraid that knowledge will hurt them? A learned educa- tion, however much it may have been abused, is certainly good in itself. It is not, indeed, indispensably necessary to a gospel minister, but it is a qualification of considerable importance, and when associated with gen- uine piety it renders the preacher far more able than he would other- wise be to discharge the duties of his sacred calling.

The first of the eight names attached to this circular is that of the dynamic Baptist minister who had published Maine's first newspaper in 1784 and had been a leader in securing the Institution's original charter, Rev. Benjamin Titcomb. His seven fellow signers were Jeremiah Chaplin, Stephen Chapin, Timothy Hods- don, Silas Stearns, Thomas Francis, Thomas Ripley, and Benjamin Farnsworth. Jeremiah Chaplin was anxious to get the literary department into early opera- tion. Several men besides Ira Chase had refused the appointment, the latest being the very Thomas Ripley who had signed the circular. In September, 1819, Chaplin wrote an urgent letter to Rev. Thomas Baldwin in Boston, the man who, as head of the Massachusetts Baptist Education Society, had been chiefly respon- sible for Chaplin's coming to Waterville. Chaplin wrote:

Mr. Ripley, having declined the appointment lately given him by the Trustees of our seminary, Mr. Avery Briggs of Hudson, who stands next on the list of prospects, should be applied to. This, I presume, has al- ready been done by Mr. Briggs of Bangor, who indeed expected to write to his brother in Hudson and inform him of his appointment. But, having lately heard that Mr. Avery Briggs is in Charlestown, I fear the

HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

letter alluded to has not reached him. Will you, brother, have the goodness to inform him of his appointment as Professor of Language in our seminary and let him know that we are anxious to obtain an answer from him without delay. I also wish to inform Mr. Kimball, pastor of the Baptist Church at Marblehead, that he was appointed a tutor at a salary of $400, on condition that neither Mr. Ripley nor Mr. Briggs should accept. I entreat you to attend to this matter as soon as convenient. We want to give public notice of obtaining an instructor for the literary department.1º

Avery Briggs did accept the position of Professor of Languages and began his duties in October, 1819. When the earth's revolution around the sun ushered in the new year of 1820, two events lay not far ahead. Maine was ready to become a separate state, and the Maine Literary and Theological Institution was ready to become a college.

CHAPTER VI

Waterville College

I N that summer of 1819, when the Trustees of the Maine Literary and Theological Institution were making appeals for public support, William King was mustering his forces for the successful attempt to make Maine a separate state. From the time of the earliest suggestion of separation, it had been a hot political issue. In the District of Maine, long before 1820, the majority of voters were Democratic-Republican followers of Thomas Jefferson, while the minority Federalists were in control in the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Federalists were themselves divided on the issue of separation. Those of the party who lived in Massachusetts proper were in favor of letting Maine become a separate state, because they foresaw the day when the Democratic majority in Maine might swing the whole commonwealth for that party. On the other hand, the Federalists in Maine knew that a separate state would mean their complete loss of control in Maine, which they would not entirely lose so long as the State House in Boston remained in Federal hands and the government of Maine con- tinued to be administered from that State House.

The newspapers of Maine took belligerent sides, as they did for many years on every political issue. Arrayed with the Maine Federalists against separation were the District's oldest newspapers, the Portland Gazette, the Hallowell Gazette, and the Kennebunk Visitor. On the other side, supporting William King's Demo- crats were the Eastern Argus, the American Advocate, and the Bangor Register. Maine's great historian, Judge Williamson, tells us that those party ranks did not hold firm. "There were found a considerable number of men in the Federalist ranks who were desirous to see Maine an independent state."1

In May, 1819, the Massachusetts legislature was presented with a petition from 70 towns in Maine, asking for the District's separation. A bill was pre- sented, which passed both houses by substantial majorities. The act required that the voters of Maine should assemble on the fourth Monday of July to vote simply yes or no on acceptance of the provisions of separation. That election resulted in 17,091 votes in favor and 7,132 against. On August 24, the Gov- ernor of Massachusetts issued a proclamation announcing the result and calling for a convention to draw up a constitution for the new state of Maine.

Though not unforeseen, it was fortunate for the Maine Literary and Theo- logical Institution that the man chosen to be president of that constitutional con- vention was William King, for the choice practically assured that he would be the state's first governor. In several respects the resulting constitution showed the influence of this man who believed that education should not be either the exclusive right of the privileged or under control of an aristocracy.

HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

The right of the state to support by public taxation the preaching of the gospel had long been contested in Maine, and in the forefront of that opposition had been the Baptists. In the town of Canaan, for instance, as early as 1802 that sect had won a hard fight to secure, by vote in town meeting, their release from the ministerial tax. Even some of the Federalists were as strongly opposed to this practice as were the Democrats. It did not prove difficult, therefore, for William King to insert into the Maine constitution a provision emphasizing the liberty in religion already guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. It is said that, before drafting the language of that provision, King corresponded with Thomas Jefferson himself, who was then still living at his Monticello home.

Voters of Maine ratified the new constitution overwhelmingly, and Massa- chusetts' Governor Brooks proclaimed that on March 15, 1820, Maine would assume rank as an independent state in "the American Confederacy." Because of the slavery issue, there was bound to be southern opposition to admission of a northern state, and it was not until March 3, 1820, only twelve days before the date set in Governor Brooks' proclamation that Maine "was declared to be one of the United States of America, admitted in all respects whatever on an equal footing with the original states."2

Article X of the Maine Constitution provided: "All laws now in force in this State, and not repugnant to this Constitution, shall remain and be in force until altered or repealed by the legislature." That section validated the charter granted to the Maine Literary and Theological Institution in 1813, together with all amendments made to it previous to 1820.

When, on May 1, 1820, the Maine Legislature assembled for the first time, one of its three senators from Kennebec County was Timothy Boutelle of Water- ville, Treasurer of the Maine Literary and Theological Institution. There they were-Governor King and Senator Boutelle-fellow Democrats and fellow trus- tees, ready to work together in the legislative interests of the school.

Before we consider the acts by which the Maine Legislature, in 1820, ex- tended the privileges of the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, we should seek an understanding of the views held by William King about colleges and seminaries in his new state. As a Jeffersonian, he believed that the people should always control their educational institutions. But, for a Jeffersonian, he seems to have had little trust in the legislature as an instrument of the people's will. He therefore tried to insert in the constitution a provision that no grant should be made to any literary institution unless the Governor and Council had power to revise and regulate the action of the institution's trustees and to have the final word in the selection of officers and the management of funds. The constitutional convention proved to be more moderate than King. Its members favored gov- ernment control, but by the legislature rather than by the Governor and Council. They also refused to go along with King's plan to hold final authority over the appointment of officers, which then meant all professors as well as financial agents. The language finally adopted merely gave the legislature power to alter provi- sions of a charter, as might seem to the legislature to be for the best interests of the particular institution. The provision is still found in the Constitution of Maine:

Article VIII: It shall further be their duty [the legislature's] to en- courage and suitably endow, from time to time, as the circumstances of the people may authorize, all academies, colleges and seminaries of learning within the state; provided that no donation, grant or endow-

WATERVILLE COLLEGE

ment shall at any time be made by the legislature to any literary institu- tion now established, or which may be hereafter established, unless at the time of making such endowment, the legislature shall have the right to grant any further powers, to alter, limit or restrain any of the powers vested in any such literary institution as shall be judged necessary to promote the best interests thereof.

Although King presented his case as one in accord with sound Jeffersonian principles, the Trustees of Bowdoin College, with whom he had been at odds since the treasury case of 1815, felt that he was directing the provision straight at the Brunswick institution. The Bowdoin Trustees were at first inclined to fight for their freedom, believing they had sound legal precedent in the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Dartmouth College case. Until the Dartmouth decision, the future of denominational colleges, and private colleges in general, had been in the balance. Previously no such institution could be secure from state interference. When the Supreme Court finally decided that private colleges were in general not subject to legislative control, then only could the private colleges feel free. But that cherished freedom was as broad as it was long. If a college was to be free from state control, should it receive donations from the state? If the people, through their legislature, had no authority over the institution, could they rightfully be taxed for its support?

The opposition of the Bowdoin Trustees to the control provisions of Maine's Constitution subsided, for, as the Bowdoin historian puts it:

The constitution was adopted and Bowdoin was obliged to make a choice between independence and bread. The College (at this time) was head- less; the Methodists and Baptists looked on it somewhat coldly as a Con- gregationalist institution; and the people would regard Bowdoin unfavor- ably so long as it remained under the protection of a 'foreign power' -- Massachusetts. The Board therefore was disposed to yield-on Decem- ber 29, 1820, Dana wrote to King that he agreed that the legislature should take the lead in the way of reform, and expressed the opinion that the same legislature which made donations should also remodel the charter.3

After the Bowdoin trustees gave in, the legislature proved not to be as radical as they had feared. Its only immediate alteration was merely to raise the number of Bowdoin trustees to twenty-five and the number of overseers to sixty, and to give the Governor and Council power to appoint the additional trustees. Hatch tells us, "Governor King found few or none but Democrats worthy of his favor, but though chosen for partisan reasons his appointees were men of character and ability who were suited for the position."+ In 1826 the legislature made the incumbent governor a member of the Bowdoin trustees, but that was five years after William King had left the governor's chair.

During the more than a century that has passed since controversy waxed hot over the constitutional control of literary institutions, historians have been inclined to note that, behind the obvious partisanship exhibited by William King, there was a sincere belief in government by the people, not what John Adams was reported to have called "government by the wellborn, the well-to-do, and the well-educated." The time was not ripe for the establishment of state insti- tutions in New England, but King was determined that the state's funds should never be used to aid institutions over which the state exercised no control at all.

HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

Since most of King's fellow trustees of the Waterville institution were also Democrats, they raised no opposition to his constitutional provision. When, there- fore, Maine's first legislature proceeded to put its stamp of approval on the Massa- chusetts charter granted to the Maine Literary and Theological Institution in 1820, the restraining provision was inserted without a murmur of dissent. That act, entitled "An Act to enlarge the powers of the Maine Literary and Theological Institution," passed on June 19, 1820, will be found in Appendix I. Its second section contained the restraining clause: "The Legislature shall have the right to grant any further powers to alter, limit, or restrain any of the powers vested in said corporation, as shall be judged necessary to promote the best interests there- of."

The Maine charter gave increased prestige to the Waterville Institution, be- cause it granted the right to confer degrees. There is no doubt that for this particular boon the Trustees were indebted to William King. By that time, his long controversy with the Bowdoin boards had made him determined that the college at Brunswick should not be the only degree-granting college in Maine. He had felt the same way even before his rift with Bowdoin, for he had worked diligently to get through the Massachusetts legislature the bill of 1812, designed to authorize a degree-granting college. As governor of the new state he was therefore not only willing, but ardently eager, to give the Baptist institution priv- ileges which he believed it should have had in the first place. With only slight opposition the Maine legislature therefore voted that "the President and Trus- tees of the Maine Literary and Theological Institution are hereby authorized and empowered to confer such degrees as are usually conferred by universities estab- lished for the education of youth; provided that the said corporation shall confer no degrees other than those of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts until after January 1, 1830."

King further cemented his democratic convictions into the Maine statute in behalf of the Waterville school by two important provisions. The first said, "The said corporation shall not make or have any rule or by-law requiring that any members of the trustees shall be of any particular religious denomination." The second proclaimed that "No student belonging or who may hereafter belong to the said Institution, sustaining a fair moral character, shall be deprived of any privileges of said Institution, or be subject to the forfeiture of any aid which has been granted by said Institution, for the purposes of enabling him to prosecute his studies, or be denied the usual testimonials on closing his studies, or be denied admission to said Institution on the ground that his interpretations of the scripture differ from those which are contained in the articles of faith adopted, or to be adopted by the Institution."

We have already shown that this latter liberal provision did not originate with the Maine legislature in 1820. It had already been proclaimed by the Insti- tution's Trustees themselves in their printed address to the public in 1819. Even if William King may have been largely responsible for its original acceptance by the Waterville board, it is to the credit of the Baptist members of that board, who held at least a two-thirds majority of the votes, that they graciously accepted it. Their acceptance was completely sincere, to be shown in practice as well as principle. As early as 1828, when attendance at Sunday services was compulsory, monitors were appointed to check on student attendance at both the Baptist and Universalist services. The right of a student to elect to attend the Universalist service was genuinely recognized.

WATERVILLE COLLEGE

Nine days after passing the act empowering the Institution to grant degrees, the legislature, on June 28, 1820, granted to M.L.T.I. the sum of $1000 annually for seven years, provided that "at least one-fourth part of said sums shall be appropriated for and towards the partial or total reduction of the tuition fees of such students, not exceeding one-half the number of any class who may apply therefor, according to the judgment of the corporation."

In the following legislature, on February 5, 1821, the Institution became truly a college. (See Appendix J). The Maine Literary and Theological Institution went out of existence, and for the next forty-six years the school of higher educa- tion at Waterville would be known as Waterville College.

There has never been complete agreement on what prompted the change. Charles P. Chipman put up a strong case for his contention that the founders had always intended to establish a college. He held that when the Trustees voted that "the price of tuition shall be the same as in Bowdoin College," they clearly intended to have an institution of a grade equal to Bowdoin's. The Massachu- setts legislative committee, to which was referred the ill-fated petition of 1818 (the petition that brought on the Richardson-King controversy), stated in its re- port to the legislature that the Trustees were trying to set up a college, and the committee believed one college was sufficient for the District of Maine. Chipman calls attention to the pamphlet of 1819, which required students "to pursue in general the same courses as those who enter the several colleges of the Com- monwealth." Most significant of all, says Chipman, was the petition presented to the Maine Legislature, within a few days after its opening in May, 1820. (See Appendix K). The third paragraph of that petition began, "They (the Trustees) further represent that it was the original design of the Trustees, when- ever their funds and prospects should warrant, to establish a sufficient number of professors and tutors to instruct in all the different branches of science and litera- ture usually taught in the colleges."5

The Baptist historian, Dr. Henry S. Burrage, did not share Chipman's con- victions. He wrote: "On February 5, 1821, an act was passed by the Legislature of Maine changing the name of the Maine Literary and Theological Institution to Waterville College. The reason for thus giving the Institution a broader charac- ter than was at first contemplated were not recorded, and can now only be con- jectured. In all probability the change was effected by Dr. Chaplin. A college graduate, he knew the value of a collegiate course as a preparation for theological study, and he could not have been long in coming to the conclusion that the work he had been called to do at Waterville could best be performed by giving the institution a collegiate character."6

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

The history of Colby College, Part 6

Author: Colby College Publication date: 1963 Publisher: Waterville, Colby College Press Number of Pages: 716

Author: Colby College
Publication date: 1963
Publisher: Waterville, Colby College Press
Number of Pages: 716